Under a starry sky
by Tina Muller
Summary: The night before the fight, Cloud and Tifa are together. What happens between them when the screen fades to black? Read to find out! Cloud/Tifa, of course, with a minor hint at sex.


Disclaimer: I do not owe Final Fantasy VII, Sqare Soft does, so I am not making any money with this story.

First of all, there will be the hint of a sex scene - if you are offended by such material, consider not reading the story. And if you think (after you've read it) that it's already to much for Rated T, please let me know so I can change the rating.

Second, I have only played the German version (famous for its messed up translation) so I hope the dialogues are somewhat close to the original.

Now, please enjoy!

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><p>Everyone else had already left the Highwind, wanting to spend the night recalling what they were all doing this for. But in fact, they were all spending time with their loved ones – or at least remembering them.<p>

Vincent had headed to a secret cave behind a waterfall, where he had met Lukretia once during the journey, mourning the fact that he was unable to save her.

Cid had gone back to his hometown, because he wanted to tell his assistant that she had saved his life, despite everything that happened.

Cait Sith returned to the Gold Saucer one last time. Reeve had never been there in person, but he enjoyed seeing it through the eyes of his puppet.

Yuffie visited her father in Wutai. Despite everything she told him, she missed him like crazy sometimes.

Like he had promised his grandfather Bugenhagen, Nanaki returned to the Cosmo Canyon once more before finally doing his best to save the planet.

Barrett wanted to see Marlene again and decided she was old enough for the truth about her father, when he handed her the necklace of her mother.

And down deep in the Lifestream, the essence of Aerith Gainsborough floated back together.

Yet Cloud and Tifa had no idea about what was going on at the moment. They were still on board of the Highwind, standing at their usual place. _"What are you going to do, Tifa?"_ Cloud asked her, barely raising his voice over the force of the storm up there. His childhood friend turned around, her head bowed slightly. _"Have you forgotten it? I am…all alone. There's nowhere I can go."_ There was sorrow in her voice and for a moment, Cloud wondered whether she would have liked to have a family of her own. But as soon as that thought arrived, he brushed it off. "No, Tifa. You've got me. You will always have me. We will always have each other." Despite the fact that he never made becoming a SOLDIER, he was a soldier at heart, unwilling to speak about his feelings.

"Let us leave the Highwind for now and spent the night on a nearby mountain. I'd love to see the sun rising one more time," he suggested and Tifa nodded. "Okay, Cloud." They emerged on top of a mountain and Tifa looked in the far distance. _"They're all gone…"_ She stated the obvious, both of them knew. While they had declared their want to destroy Sephiroth because of what he had done in Nibelheim, it was not the entire truth. Cloud wanted to ultimately fulfil his promise, saving Tifa, who was willing to follow him to the end of the world and beyond.

_"You're right. There's no one and nowhere we could go to,"_ Cloud agreed. A small smile appeared on Tifa's face. She had not smiled often in the past weeks and it strangely felt out of place. _"But I am sure that they'll come back one day…don't you think so?"_ The blonde man was unsure about that. Perhaps they would realize how useless their fight was and decided to stay with the ones they truly loved and cared for. Like Tifa and him now. _"I mean, everyone has something invaluable that they hold on to,"_ he spoke out what had just crossed his mind. _"But this time, our enemy…"_ his voice faded, but there was no need to finish the sentence. His old friend already knew what he meant with that.

_"Hmm…but it's alright, even if none of them returns,"_ she began, finally gathering all the strength she could muster. Not physical strength, she had plenty of that; But emotional strength. After her mother had died, she had developed a habit of locking up her feelings deep in her heart. The night at the Gold Saucer, she almost let them out but backed up in the last instance. There was no way she would do that now. _"As long as I'm with you…As long as you are by my side, I will not give up, even if I'm afraid."_

Her voice, suddenly so soft and barely audible in the endless silence of the mountain range touched Cloud's heart. It touched a string which he had hidden as deep as possible. _"…Tifa…"_ was all he could manage to say, for the first time in his life, the man who was often depicted as cold and uncaring was overwhelmed by his feelings. Feelings he had never had before in such clearness, feelings he was unable to describe. But her name was all Tifa needed. It was the way he pronounced it, as if he felt for her in the same way that she felt for him. So she continued. _"It doesn't matter how close we are now. We used to be…far from each other."_ What she wanted to tell him now was something she was actually lacking the words to describe.

_"But when we were in the Lifestream, all those screams of fear around us, I thought that I've heard your voice."_ She felt herself blushing when she admitted that. It was childish, at least she thought so, and she was sure if Barrett or someone else would hear about that, they would laugh their heads off. The tears that had already pooled in her eyes started to flow silently and she sniffed once. _"You probably can't remember…but deep in my heart, I heard you calling my name. At least I thought so."_ What she mentally added was the way he called her to him. It was exactly the way he had said her name here, just a few minutes earlier.

Cloud took a deep breath, he was a brawler and soldier, not a man who knew how to act in such a situation. Even if he knew that Tifa had the most special place in his heart, he had no idea how to tell her. Aerith' death had hurt him and the others, but if something would happen to Tifa, he would be crushed. _"Yes…I've heard you calling my name,"_ he simply answered, surprised by his own voice which seemed to crack slightly at the end. _"You called me back from the Lifestream."_ He wanted to tell her how it felt, the darkness around him, and suddenly, a bright light flashed and he heard Tifa calling out his name. It was that light that gave him direction to surface once more.

But that sounded so cheesy that he would rather face Sephiroth with nothing but a paper tissue than saying that out loud. The situation was tense in a strange way, so he tried to let his cocky side regaining control. _"Well…I promised it after all. I've promised to help you should something bad ever happen to you."_ Now that was not what Cloud Strife had hoped, in its own way, it was an emotional statement, too. Tifa still had her back turned to him, wondering how she was able to cry when she felt so happy despite of what would happen in the next seven days. Behind them, the twilight began to change to a starry night sky.

_"Cloud…? Do you think the stars can hear us?"_ So after all those years, they would spend one more night under the stars, it seemed like a cycle had just been completed. She lifted her head, looking at the Polaris that already shone brightly. _"Do you think they can see how much we fight for them?"_ Way down deep, she knew that she was just avoiding what could not be avoided. Cloud took a deep breath, like her, he was thinking of the stars in Nibelheim. _"I don't know…But…"_ he started, wanting to tell her what was truly on his mind, yet he had no idea how, so he settled for something else instead. Since when had he become a coward? A voice deep inside his head, not Sephiroth, but a voice that reminded him of his mother, answered him: Since it has something to do with Tifa.

_"It doesn't matter at all; we need to do everything we can. We need to believe in us,"_ he continued. "Like you believed in me, Tifa," he thought but decided that only thinking that was rather unfair._ "I've learnt this from you, when we were in the Lifestream." "Yes…exactly…"_ she murmured. For a moment, there was silence between them. Both of them wanted to break it with all their might, yet at the same time they were afraid of what would happen if they continued.

Cloud felt himself shivering slightly when he took the next step. _"He…Tifa…I…"_ No, he did not want to stutter now. _"There are a lot of things I want to talk over with you."_ Talking especially about his feelings._ "But now, as we're together, I don't know what I wanted to tell you…"_ He recalls his visit in Nibelheim, how he had told her mother that there were no girls in his life. If he had just gotten over the fact that he had not made it to SOLDIER, perhaps he would have used his chance to gather experience. After all, he was a 21 year old man who had never kissed a woman before. But deep inside, he knew that it would not have helped him, since this was different. The woman here with him was Tifa, someone who knew the depths and darkness within him almost as well as he did himself.

_"I am afraid, nothing has changed. It almost makes you feel like laughing, doesn't it?"_ Tifa was nervous, more nervous than in any battle she had fought so far. There was something about Cloud, about his behaviour, his voice and his Mako-shining eyes that made her feel speechless as well. She was not good in that, she never was. The men she had met before were nice enough, but nothing like Cloud. Yet she felt unable to tell him about that. "Aerith or Yuffie would have already done that without hesitating, if they were here," she thought.

And then she had an idea. _"Cloud…words are not the only way to tell people about your thoughts."_ Oh, how alike they were when it came to matters of the heart, both fighters but feeling unequipped on that specific battlefield. Yet just who does feel equipped on such a battlefield?

_"Tifa…"_ Cloud whispered, his heart feeling as if it was going to beat right out of his chest. He made his way over to her, wanting to touch her. Yet he hesitated when his hand lingered inches away from her face. Unlike her, his strength had been multiplied by Mako and now he was not only afraid by his feelings but also that he might hurt her. She could read all that in his eyes, eyes that were right in front of her. "Cloud…" she began, "…kiss me." He had never done that before, but when his lips touched hers, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close to him.

Tifa did not want Cloud to stop, ever. But eventually, the very human need to breathe took over. There was no way in hiding it now, in denying it anymore. She brought her lips to his ear. His senses were in overload, he listened to their fast breaths, he could feel his heart pounding so loud he wondered whether she could hear it. "I love you, Cloud." It was the most difficult thing she had ever said, but when her lips formed the words her heart had already screamed for such a long time, a huge weight seemed to be lifted. Whether he laughed now, told her to leave or whatever else she was even too afraid to think of, it did not matter to her anymore. She had told him about it and even if they would die tomorrow, she would not regret anything. But he did nothing of the things she had feared, instead, he looked her in the eyes before pulling her in another kiss.

"Cloud…" she murmured as she buried her gloved hands in his surprisingly soft blonde hair before he effectively cut off whatever would have followed his name. Without stopping to kiss his old childhood friend, he sat down on the grass and pulled her in his lap. Her skirt had gotten out of place, ultimately baring her tights. Perhaps it was getting cold around them, but neither noticed, they were far too wrapped up with each other. "Tifa," he managed to choke out before taking off her top. Maybe he should have asked for her consent or whatever it was called, love was not taught when you were working for Shinra. Yet the way her hands made their way under his skin-tight shirt, peeling it off him was enough to qualify as consent.

His instincts had taken over, and he had no intention to change that, obviously his body knew what to do in this situation. Cloud turned them over and continued kissing her. When she had the control over her lips back for a small span of time, she decided to simply go for it. "Cloud…make love to me." No regrets tonight. "I love you, Tifa," he just stated, surprised by the rightness of these words. She turned them back to the way before and their shirts were quickly followed by his trousers, her skirt and their underwear.

Above them, the stars had begun to shine brightly, watching over the lovers. It was a sky just as beautiful as they remembered the one in Nibelheim, yet they could not care less. When they had gotten rid of their clothes, Cloud pulled Tifa back in his arms, finally bringing their bodies as close to each other as possible, as close as their souls had been in the Lifestream.

"We should get dressed, otherwise we will freeze," Cloud murmured in Tifa's ear when she was awake again. He had watched her sleeping peacefully, wrapped up in his arms. She fitted against him perfectly and if he had the chance to do so, he would have stayed just like this until the end of time. But Cloud knew that this was impossible. Sooner or later the sun would rise again, betraying him and Tifa. They got dressed again, but he continued to hold her tight, despite the fact that it was not nearly tight enough for either. Still, they fell asleep.

_"…Dawn is already breaking…"_ Cloud whispered when he opened his eyes. Tifa was still cuddled up against him and he breathed in her smell, before she opened her eyes, too. _"Hm…?"_ she mouthed, half-asleep, not wanting to wake up from her dreams of Cloud. _"I'm sorry,"_ he said quietly, _"have I woken you up? Dawn is almost breaking, Tifa."_ Despite the fact how close they were now, he was still struggling with his vocabulary. _"Hmm…good morning…Cloud,"_ she answered, almost shyly. It seemed that she, too, preferred showing her feelings rather than declaring them. Cloud smiled inwardly. _"Give me a little more time… Just a little…"_ She leaned against him once more. _"This day will never come back…Let me savour the moment…"_ Just how they had savoured it, how they had savoured what they felt and did last night. _"Hm…okay."_ Deep inside him, he felt something dying, perhaps some of his remaining hopes. Maybe that was all they had gotten, one night, which should be enough. Yet it was not. He wanted to fall asleep next to her and wake up next to her for the rest of his life. For ever, if that was possible. Too bad their forever could most certainly be over in a few hours.

When they boarded the Highwind again, the sun was already shining. _"We better get going,"_ Cloud had said, deciding that there was no other way. If they could have ran away, maybe he would have taken a chance. But the world was going to end, so the least he could do was making sure that Sephiroth was ending with them.

_"But I…"_ Tifa started, wanting to tell him something, to stop him. She did not manage to do so because he gave her a sad smile._ "Ok, Tifa. You've said it yourself yesterday. At least we don't have to go alone."_ Both of them knew that something else was hanging in the air, an unspoken, renewed promise. They would make it out of the North Crater alive and when they did so, they would take a chance and live their love. _"Yeah…that's right!" "Ok! Let's do it!"_

But of course, the others had returned - returned for the final fight with Sephiroth.

Making their way down the North Crater, the friends were forced to split up more than once. In the end, it was Cloud, Tifa and Nanaki who entered the cave first. Tifa was simply glad to be with Cloud, doing her best to enjoy what was most likely going to be the last hours in which they existed. Jenova and Sephiroth had put up more than just a fight, but in the end, they had destroyed him. At least they thought so.

_"There's nothing more we can do,"_ Cloud told the others when they were back together. _"Wait! What about Holy!? What happens to the planet?"_ a deep voice replied, Barrett. _"I…don't know. Isn't that something the planet itself must decide?"_ the former SOLDIER answered and looked at Tifa, who nodded. _"…You're right."_ Maybe, just maybe, the stars had heard them last night, seen how hard they fought for them – and that the last two original inhabitants of Nibelheim also fought for each other, for a possible future.

_"We did what we could do,"_ Tifa admitted and gave him a shaky smile. _"Ok, everyone,"_ Cloud shouted. _"There's no use in thinking about it. We better leave all our worries here. Let us go back home, proud."_ His eyes met Tifa's once more and he could see that she was thinking the same. Nibelheim – their Nibelheim – had been destroyed, burned to the ground, but last night, they had found a new home: A home in each other.

Just when they were about to follow the others, Cloud stopped. _"What happened?"_ Tifa knew exactly that something was wrong. He could not lie to her, so he stuck to the truth. _"…I can feel it…" "What?"_ she wanted to know, although deep inside, she had an idea what he was talking about. _"He's still…here."_ Cloud felt his soul detaching from his body, but this time, he allowed it to happen. _"Still here…" "Cloud!?"_ Her voice was full of emotion and the wish to help him could be seen in her eyes, yet Cloud was sure about one thing: That was the last fight and he had to fight it on his own. _"He's…laughing…"_ And with this, he let go, or at least he thought so. _"Cloud!"_ All alone, Tifa's voice was the only thing that could still touch him. A faint idea appeared in his mind…back when they were in the Lifestream…how close their souls had been…perhaps, without knowing it, the Lifestream had bound their souls together. And if that was the case, Cloud would never be alone.

Sephiroth was waiting for him, only this time he was not in disguise. The final fight would take place in the mind, without any disguise. Jenova's son was smiling, as if he was sure that Cloud would go down. Yet Cloud had something Sephiroth never had. _Something worth fighting for – someone worth dying for._ With Tifa in his heart, nothing could stop him, Cloud was sure of that, despite the fact that he would not tell anyone. Lifting his sword, he striked down his nemesis, Sephiroth, again and again. Until he eventually died, truly died, stopped existing.

The Lifestream was around Cloud again, bringing him back to the others, back to Tifa. Tifa, who had her hand stretched out, still caring more about Cloud than running away to save her own life. Nothing was safe anymore, the upcoming earthquake destroyed the small stone Tifa was on and she was falling down. Cloud did not even think, he ran as fast as he could, grabbing her tightly and making a jump for the edge. He willed his hand not to miss it, he had a promise to keep and he was not going to let Tifa down, not now, never. _"I think, I'm beginning to understand,"_ he told her as he continued holding her and gathering strength to pull them back up. _"What?"_ Tifa asked him, tightening her grip on him, holding onto Cloud as if he was her only lifeline. Which he, in fact, was. _"An answer of this planet…the Promised Land…"_ Without stopping to speak, he pulled Tifa and himself up. Despite the danger of the situation, Tifa's eyes were closed. No matter what, Cloud was here with her. They would either make it, or die, but they would do so together.

_"I think…I can meet her…there,"_ he said and Tifa opened her eyes again, smiling at Cloud. She was his, and he was hers, and if Aerith happened to be alive in whatever form, Tifa would be happy for her, maybe Aerith - or the essence of her being - would be with Zack. _"Let's go and seek her,"_ he suggested, tightening his grip on Tifa, as if he wanted to assure her, that he liked Aerith and missed her, but loved Tifa. A moment later, the two of them were back on safe ground.

_"Hey, where are the others?"_ Cloud wanted to know and as soon as he asked, Barrett waved. _"Heeey!" "I'm glad you're all save!"_ Tifa shouted and smiled. _"I think they are all save,"_ Cloud agreed with her. The following minutes passed in a blur, they ran up the Northern Crater and entered the Highwind again. It seemed that Holy was not strong enough, the Meteor kept coming. _"What is that?"_ Tifa asked as a green light appeared. _"What the hell is that?"_ Barrett repeated as he stared into the sky. And then it hit Cloud and Tifa, of course they knew what it was, having been soaked in it not so long ago. _"The Lifestream…"_ And while Holy and the Lifestream destroyed Meteor, somehow, the eight brave fighters could see Aerith Gainsborough standing in front of their inner eyes.

Cloud pulled Tifa close to him, watching the sun setting. Only this time, he had the feeling that there would be a new day for sure. And a promise to keep – a promise of living together from now on. Their eyes locked and when their lips touched, they poured all the words they were unable to say in that kiss.

After all, words are not the only way to tell people about your thoughts.


End file.
